Introducing the new porch window at Orleton Manor

We are pleased to announce the completion of a new oak mullion, plant-on window at Orleton Manor, which has been carefully handcrafted by renowned cabinet maker, John Beavan. The process of creating this exquisite piece involved many hours of dedication and attention to detail.

John's passion for woodwork began at a young age of seven when he made a small table out of his mother's ironing board. Since then, he has honed his craft and is now considered one of the most accomplished and respected cabinet makers in the industry.

As a Sotheby's and Christies Listed Cabinet Maker with over 40 years of experience, John has worked with a diverse range of clients, from rockstars to royalty. His prestigious list of clientele is a testament to his skills and craftsmanship.

John's commitment to excellence is evident in the finished product. "Making something difficult - beautifully is what it's all about for me," he confirms. "I have a passion for perfection."

The completion of the oak window, which forms part of the structural timbers of the porch, is a proud moment for all involved. The intricate details and flawless finish are a testament to the dedication and skill of the joiner and his team. The window is not only functional but also a beautiful addition to the property's aesthetics.

In conclusion, the success of this part of the project is a testament to the importance of working with experienced and skilled craftsmen. John’s passion for perfection and dedication to his craft are reflected in this window, and we are delighted to have worked with him on this exceptional piece of joinery.

Exploded Repair Diagram by Montez Architecture

Gallery of additional Photographs

Early Summer Drone Flyover

Just a quick look back to the beginning of the summer, after the roof trusses, were back on and the rafters starting to go into place. We'll look to get another fly over done before the slates start to go back on.

She needs a new Hip!

A big area for repair at Orleton has been the Hip end, joining the kitchen wing and hall range. Typically a hipped building is where the slope of the roof into the middle of a building like a tent or a pyramid with no gable ends. Usually, this makes for a structure where the roof's forces are resolved as they are self-bracing with the load going into the centre of a building.

Image courtesy of Modernize

To add to the complication at Orleton Manor, given the U shape plan of the building, you end up with valleys, which is the inverse of a hip, where the cross wing meets the hall range at both ends. So each corner or hip in this instance has two trusses, one hip rafter and one valley rafter.

Now, saying that Hip roofs are good and that they have resolved forces is all fine, but in the case of Orleton Manor, as it has evolved over time, many structural members had either been cut out, decayed, heavily notched or altered that gave a corner of a building with very little tying from corner to corner.

As you can see in the image above, most of the roof members were cantilevered and short of the apex, with many alterations over time to suit how the building was being used. The post down to the truss had been pushed back to give more space, and the purlin to the hip rafter had failed at some point, being replaced with a smaller section.

Again as per the hip side, the valley had a lot of cantilevered members, especially the large purlin to the left-hand middle that stopped short of the truss line, as well as the ridge at the top. As you can see in the photos above, the valley beam is suffering from decay, valleys are where the roof is working it's hardest as you have two roof plains of water converging along a joint, and a common area for failure.

So once the roof trusses had been craned back into place, works began on the truss in accordance with our engineer's drawings. The main issue to resolve as mentioned above was the lack of connection between the members that should have been tying the building together. Rather than add new scarfed pieces of timber to every short piece, a boss post was added to allow all the timbers to connect together.

The broken and replaced purlins were replaced as you can see above and below with new members. Unfortunately, in this area, they were too far gone to save and some missing, so they were faithfully recreated to match the right-hand piece, with a dovetailed end to hip. We were very pleased that with a bit of clever engineering the hip was saveable along with most of the purlins on the kitchen side of the hip.

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Above is a close up of the hip, with its patch repair to the old notches and the scarf repair to the underside of the purlin, a principle rafter was reinstated into the empty mortice pocket of the floor beam creating a connection to the ridge and giving a location to land the purlins on.

Above you can see Jake, drilling the slip tenon between the new purlins ready for them to be securely pegged in place.

Here, you can see in detail the new valley rafter. This was increased in size and shifted slightly lower so that it sat in the correct position. This allowed collecting the previously cantilevered purlin which you can see here on the left, which had a new end scarfed into position. Two new large valley boards have been created that sits over the purlin, ready for the roof to go on. These are very much over-engineered, but will more than certainly outlast any new roof covering that goes on.

And there we have the main structural work to the hip and valley created. A real feat of craftsmanship and engineering that took much discussion from all parties to get to a conclusion that we were happy with. Certainly, some very complex geometry with 400-year-old timbers that twist and bow is a testament to the excellent carpenters we have on site. We will release another blog post in more detail looking at the Dragon Tie with its impressive steelwork and how the boss was constructed.